Rosemarie44 says: I can't count here. I have 14.

Guest says: Good decision on yesterday's hand.

spin121 says: 5 5 J J

JQT says: I prefer to lead a Jack as opposed to a 5 Card, otherwise holding all FOUR 5 Cards might be wise. But why might we retain TWO Jacks instead of just ONE? After we lead a Jack, our 5 Cards might once again become dangerous after any number of replies (3333, 4444, 6666, 777) or about fifteen replies. The second Jack comes in handy here! Its only cost is that now we might have to peg ONE point.

JQT says: Lots of good information here! This is the type of Endgame Position one might use not only to assess human player skills, but also to test the accuracy of a program. Notice that we must NOT allow a Dealer who sits at Hole 117 (and thus only needs to peg Four Holes) to get Two Points right from the get-go! That's because it's so easy for a Dealer to then peg a "go" and also to peg one more point for Last Card. The nearly 88% Loss Rate if we hold all Four 5 Cards reflects this very well. And that fact alone means that as Pone, we should definitely not hold all Four 5 Cards today, not if we have another option. And we have TWO other options here. Remember: An *average* Dealer pegs 3.5 Holes! Don't EVER give up an early PAIR or an early (15-2) to a Dealer who is sitting at Hole 117. Before the Cut, we also had to worry about TWO more Jacks in the deck, which means that 2 DIV 46 equals 0.0435 or slightly greater than 4% of the time, we would actually Cut a Jack in this scenario! With a Dealer possibly advancing to Hole 119 after a Jack Cut, I believe that holding Four 5 Cards as Pone would be tantamount to losing. Now we are left with a decision of whether to hold One or Two Jacks alongside our 5 Cards. We can see that if we hold Two Jacks, we might end up with just a Dozen Points, and therefore we would need to peg One Hole. The odds of this occurring are improved if our cards "add up" to at least a Count of Twenty, and in this case, Two Jacks and Two 5 Cards adds up to a Hand Count Thirty, so while it's no guarantee, we're somewhat likely to 'catch' a "go" somewhere. We might also Cut our way to that extra required point via 30 Cuts (AsAh, 2s2h, 3s3h, 4s4h, 6s6h, 7s7h, 8s8h, 9s9h, TTTT, JcJd, QQQQ, KKKK) or more than 65% of the remaining deck. Those are fairly healthy odds. Halscrib does an excellent job in reflecting this and shows a Loss Rate of just under 37%. That's a bit like playing Russian Roulette with only Two Bullets in your Six Shooter: not great when life-or-death hangs in the balance, but not-too-shabby when it comes to surviving in a game of Cribbage! Last, we look at what happens if we retain just One Jack. Here, our Hand Count is Twenty-Five, which is not quite as secure as having Thirty, but since our Hand now totals a score of 14 Points, we are no longer required to peg any at all. The problem however arises when we look at Dealer Pegging. As I stated earlier: After we lead a Jack, our 5 Cards might once again become dangerous after any number of replies (3333, 4444, 6666, 777) or about fifteen replies. Halscrib shows this very clearly, with the Loss Rate now jumping all the way up to nearly 62%! That's akin to playing Russian Roulette and having Four Bullets inserted into the six chambers! Lastly, Halscrib indicates how important it is to lead a Jack today: as I stated before, but it's worth saying again: Don't EVER give up an early PAIR or an early (15-2) to a Dealer who is sitting at Hole 117. After we lead a Jack, Halscrib indicates that we have nearly a 54% chance of prevailing; I think we can do slightly better than this.

Guest says: You know, I consider keeping all of the fives just to get the chance for the 28 hand even if it costs me the game. Some of us have still never had one. I just don't know if I could resist the opportunity even if it costs me the game